In commerce, companies strive to control the movement and pricing of their products as those products move through the distribution chain to a consumer. These important controls are threatened by counterfeiting, which brings substandard products to the consumer, and diversion, which brings genuine products to consumers prematurely through an unauthorized seller. Short-circuiting the planned distribution channels allows a diverter or counterfeiter to undercut the manufacturer's controlled customer-pricing model while taking unfair advantage of the true owner's marketing and sales efforts. The negative impact on product image, pricing, and profitability can be significant. In some instances, product diversion can damage a branded product so severely that it destroys the market potential of the product over time. The devious practices of counterfeiting and product diversion have been aided by the internet and e-commerce, and there remains a need for products and processes to detect and discourage them.